I will not tolerate small children kicking the back of my seat. I ask them nicely to stop once. If they continue, I ask the adult with them to please control their child. If the adult says, "It's not a problem," (gr-r-r) the next time the kid kicks me, I recline my seat to the max. This usually puts my head in their space. I say, "We are sharing this seat: You use this side, I use the other side. Let's be considerate of each other." I say it politely, but my tone implies that I will keep my seat reclined to the max if the child continues to kick me.

My kids were once the seat kickers. I had mistakenly given them jelly snakes as a treat so they were in the middle of a sugar rush (never again). I was traveling alone with them and they were about 3 & 4. They were gleefully kicking the seat in front. The passenger was understandably upset and I was apologetic, but the kids didn't care. They were just having fun. I felt lousy, still do years later. Eventually they got bored with that game and gave up, but it was nothing to do with my good parenting.

I am going to assume this is a joke. Well, actually hoping that this is a joke. Your kids kicking the seat in front of them, being allowed to keep continuing to do so, just because they were having fun? Um,yeah, this is a perfect example of "not" so good parenting.

Oh sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I didn't condone it, I just couldn't stop them. Really. I tried, I pleaded with them, I threatened them, I bribed them. Short of flinging them out the window I ran out of options.

How do you propose I stopped them? I'm open to ideas. It probably lasted 10 minutes.

I understand, Oz Diva, our eldest did the same thing on her first flight. Of course, didn't help that putting her in a cars eat for her safety also gave her access to the seatback (otherwise she'd have been too low) and I tried everything up to and including holding her feet down. There's only so much you can do.

I am going to assume this is a joke. Well, actually hoping that this is a joke. Your kids kicking the seat in front of them, being allowed to keep continuing to do so, just because they were having fun? Um,yeah, this is a perfect example of "not" so good parenting.

I would've been spanked at 3 or 4 if I'd kicked a seat after being told not to.

I am going to assume this is a joke. Well, actually hoping that this is a joke. Your kids kicking the seat in front of them, being allowed to keep continuing to do so, just because they were having fun? Um,yeah, this is a perfect example of "not" so good parenting.

I would've been spanked at 3 or 4 if I'd kicked a seat after being told not to.

For me, I'd rather deal with the seat kicking than the screaming from a kid being spanked. That seems to be the result anytime I've been in the area of a kid misbehaving and the result being a spanking. Maybe it isn't for others, but I do not deal with screaming in a small space well.

I've offered to move, for the ease of a travelling family, and been refused. Must have been the best part of 30 years ago, but does anybody remember Standby and Guaranteed Standby? I don't think they exist any more, probably because of the security issues, and because cheap flights are a big promotional thing now, but when I was a student flying home from England to Ireland, full fare was very expensive. (I believe the Irish Sea was, mile for mile, the most expensive stretch of water to cross in Europe.) The airline offered Standby, which was about a quarter of the price, and you just turned up for a flight, and if there was room you flew, and if there wasn't, you waited for the next flight and hoped. If you picked your times carefully, you usually got to fly but you needed to bring a big book and be prepared to wait 24 hours. Guaranteed Standby was about half full fare, and again, you went when there was room, but they guaranteed you that you would fly on the third flight from the time you checked in. That meant that occasionally they had to put on an unscheduled flight, but I suppose they made the sums work.

Well, I used to go GS, but this one time, the airline had completely messed up the numbers. It was nearly Christmas so a lot of Irish people living in England were going home. There was supposed to be a flight every 2 hours and I turned up for the 10 a.m. one. It was full. Not a surprise - I was frankly not expecting to go before the third plane. The planes were 200 seaters, and by noon there were a thousand people, with a variety of tickets, waiting to fly. Some of them had been there since the night before. At that point, the airline stopped distinguishing between the types of tickets - which in itself wasn't well received - and simply started taking people in order of check-in. They also started borrowing aircraft from other airlines. I flew Air France in the end; the people on the flight ahead of us went El Al. Add in that this was to Belfast in the early 80s when security was... well, like we all go through now, but then, most people weren't used to it, so it was total mayhem.

I ended up sitting next to a woman with a little girl of about 4; in the row in front was her husband and their toddler, and both children wanted Mummy. Not Daddy. Daddy wouldn't do. Wanted Mummy. I knew nothing about children at the time, but I could see a meltdown approaching so I asked her if she would like me to change seats with her son so that she could have both children with her.

I have rarely seen an expression of such horror on a woman's face.

Her husband seemed keen, mind you!

Fortunately both children were asleep within 5 minutes of take-off, and I would guess that she had known they would be... but then they were woken after 50 minutes for landing, and the meltdown happened then...

I will not tolerate small children kicking the back of my seat. I ask them nicely to stop once. If they continue, I ask the adult with them to please control their child. If the adult says, "It's not a problem," (gr-r-r) the next time the kid kicks me, I recline my seat to the max. This usually puts my head in their space. I say, "We are sharing this seat: You use this side, I use the other side. Let's be considerate of each other." I say it politely, but my tone implies that I will keep my seat reclined to the max if the child continues to kick me.

My kids were once the seat kickers. I had mistakenly given them jelly snakes as a treat so they were in the middle of a sugar rush (never again). I was traveling alone with them and they were about 3 & 4. They were gleefully kicking the seat in front. The passenger was understandably upset and I was apologetic, but the kids didn't care. They were just having fun. I felt lousy, still do years later. Eventually they got bored with that game and gave up, but it was nothing to do with my good parenting.

I am going to assume this is a joke. Well, actually hoping that this is a joke. Your kids kicking the seat in front of them, being allowed to keep continuing to do so, just because they were having fun? Um,yeah, this is a perfect example of "not" so good parenting.

Oh sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I didn't condone it, I just couldn't stop them. Really. I tried, I pleaded with them, I threatened them, I bribed them. Short of flinging them out the window I ran out of options.

How do you propose I stopped them? I'm open to ideas. It probably lasted 10 minutes.

Honestly, I would have been made them sit on their legs or sit crisscross or physically restrained their legs before I allowed two kids to kick the seat in front of them. An occasional bump here and there is expected. But "gleefully" kicking would have turned me into a complete ogre that my kids would not have wanted to deal with for the remainder of the flight.

"My kids were once the seat kickers. I had mistakenly given them jelly snakes as a treat so they were in the middle of a sugar rush (never again). I was traveling alone with them and they were about 3 & 4. They were gleefully kicking the seat in front. The passenger was understandably upset and I was apologetic, but the kids didn't care. They were just having fun. I felt lousy, still do years later. Eventually they got bored with that game and gave up, but it was nothing to do with my good parenting."

This is exactly the sort of reason why people hate having kids around them on a flight. And while I agree it has nothing to do with good parenting, it has everything to do with bad parenting. Somehow the kids were uncontrollable and felt no compunction to listen to you.

First of all, it's a myth that sugar causes hyperactivity in children. Yes, I'm sure some of you have anecdotal stories but please save both of us time if you don't believe me and google it. (This really has nothing to do with this thread other than I'm tired of hearing a theory that persists despite it being debunked years ago.)

As for judging the mom as to whether or not she's a good parent, enough. One episode of a parent fail, and yes I believe she failed in this case, does not give any evidence as to whether or not she's a good mother. Move on.

Also, spanking is not only a controversial subject but it has nothing to do with etiquette.

IOW, the subject is closed.

Logged

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